Removing fake tan: pick your surface

Fake Tan is a dye stain, usually from transfer from freshly tanned skin onto bedding, sofas and seats. The chemistry stays the same wherever it lands — but the safe way to treat it changes completely with the surface, which is why each pairing below has its own guide.

Not water-soluble

Water alone will not touch this stain; it needs an absorbent, surfactant or solvent stage.

Heat sets it

Keep hot water, steam and dryers away until the fake tan is fully out — heat fixes it permanently.

Fresh vs dried-in

Fake tan contains DHA, which develops its colour by reacting with protein over several hours — so the stain you see next morning is darker than the one you missed the night before. Caught before it develops, detergent shifts most of it; developed tan is a true dye mark and responds only partially to alcohol.